Watch CBS News

'Viva House' Celebrates 50 Years

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — 50 years is a long time to do anything...but that's how long one Baltimore couple has been serving the south Baltimore community.

It was August 1968 when Willa Bickham and Brandan Walsh moved into a Mount St. rowhome. They're still there.

Brendan Walsh hands out tickets to a cold lunch on a sweltering hot day. A free lunch was prepared by volunteers.

Everyone in this southwest Baltimore neighborhood knows that the three-story rowhouse at 26 Mount St., "Viva House", will feed you.

"This place serves you like the best. They really cater to you. You don't even have to get out of your seat." Joseph Lynch said.

In 1968 the former seminarian Brendan Walsh and former nun Willa Bickham, who were both part of the anti-war movement in Baltimore, married and bought a rowhome for $1,000.

50 years later, they have served one million meals, distributed 375 tons of food and housed more than 3,000 women, children, and men. They live there. They've raised their daughter there. And they've watched the neighborhood change.

"And then we saw the real drug trade, in the 80s, yeah," Walsh said.

But they never left. And they have attracted an army of volunteers.

Fred has been volunteering for 23 years.

"Because I know Brendan is serving the neighborhood and he provides good meals and good atmosphere," Fred said.

"Gratitude is the essential thing. It's saying thanks. None of this would've happened without the people who've come to help,"

Vanessa came first as a guest.

"I didn't want to come at first, right. But I still came and after the second time I came I asked Miss Willa could I volunteer," Vanessa said.

"What you have to do is the works of mercy and at the same time resist the works of war and violence, and if you do those things you're pretty on target." Walsh said.

Follow @WJZ on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.